Thursday, July 27, 2006

Nicolo de Conti (Glossary)

Nicolo de Conti (ca.1395-1469), a Venetian merchant, traveled either 36 or 25 years, depending on which account you believe, throughout much of the Indian Ocean and the adjoining regions of Asia and Africa.

De Conti's great impact on history is seen through his account to papal secretary Poggio Bracciolini declaring that the Indian Ocean was a wide open sea and not enclosed by land as Europeans had thought since Ptolemy's time.

With good reason it is believed that de Conti's views influenced such persons and cartographers as Fra Mauro and Paolo Toscanelli. The latter in turn either directly or indirectly influenced both Columbus and Magellan in believing that one could venture to the East Indies from the East (traveling West from Europe).

African journey?

Gavin Menzies, in his controversial work on the voyages of Zheng He's fleet, has suggested that Conti had sailed with Zheng toward Africa, and beyond.

Menzies rightfully notes that Conti had great influence on cartographer Fra Mauro, a fellow Venetian. Mauro's map of the world uses place-names, and sources for spices, that appear directly copied from Conti's interviews with Bracciolini. Mauro also is the first to chart the difference between Taprobana (Sri Lanka) and Sumatra, something again first revealed in Conti's testimony.

Mauro also displays the Indian Ocean as an open sea with passage possible both in the East and the West.

The African connection comes from notes made by Fra Mauro concerning the voyage of a junk or ship from the Indies around the southern tip of Africa:

About the year 1420 a ship or junk of the Indies passed directly across the Indian Ocean in the direction of the Men-and-Women Islands beyond Cape Diab, and past the Green Islands and the Dark (Sea), sailing (thereafter) west and south-west for 40 days and finding nothing but air and water. According to the estimate of her (company) she travelled 32,000 km. Then, conditions worsening, she returned in 70 days to the aforesaid Cape Diab.

Fra Mauro continues in another passage again suggesting the continuity of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, the former believed to be completely surrounded by land up until that time:

Moreover I have had speech with a person worthy of belief who affirmed that he had passed in a ship of the Indies through a raging storm 40 days out of the Indian Ocean beyond the Cape of Sofala and the Green Islands more or less south-west and west. And according to the calculations of her astronomers, his guides, this person had sailed 32,000 km.

Now, according to Menzies, the 'person worthy of belief' mentioned by Fra Mauro can be none other than Nicolo de Conti himself.

Conti had told Poggio, the papal secretary, that he left Italy in 1419 and using his chronology of events in that account it appears he made his way to India and left from there either in 1421 or 1422 i.e. very near the 'about the year 1420' mentioned for the African journey by Fra Mauro.

Menzies believes that Conti departed India with Zheng He's fleet. The next thing we hear from Poggio's account, though, is that Conti is in Sumatra and there is no mention of an African journey.

Scholars have suggested that Poggio censored Conti's account (see Rubiés, p. 121), and that may have some confirmation when we see the difference between Poggio and Tafur's versions of Conti's journeys.

Three Indias

Conti divided India into three parts as was common in his time. The first India was found from Persia to the Indus River, the second from the Indus to the Ganges, and the third included all the lands beyond the Ganges i.e., India extra-Gangem.

It also should be noted that Fra Mauro describes the African voyage ship that Conti supposedly traveled on as a 'ship or junk of the Indies.'

That's an interesting description because at this time, Southeast Asian ships often were of a hybrid type showing both junk-like characteristics such as transverse bulkheads, and Southeast Asian typology including wooden joints and tropical hardwood materials rather than the fir commonly used to construct Chinese junks.

Even the word "junk" or "zoncho" (Portuguese junco) appears derived from Old Javanese jong and Javanese djong, a name for an ocean-going ship.

Conti himself in his testimony to Pero Tafur had stated that he spent most of his time in the Indian Ocean in the service of "Prester John" of "Greater India."

One interesting discovery has been highlighted by Menzies as proof that ships at that time were circumnavigating the world. The Pandanan wreck off the coast of Palawan in the Philippines is dated to the 15th century and is loaded with andesite metates that Menzies claims must have come from Mesoamerica or South America. The cylindrical stone manos of the metates are rather unusual and do resemble those of the contemporary period "New World."

The lusung/lusong mortars and pestles in the Philippines are generally made of wood. In Guam, the Chamorro lusong is stone, but the pestles are wood. Nothing quite similar to the Pandanan metates is known to have been manufactured in this region during the historical period.

Like other ships of that time and in the same region, the Pandanan wreck shared characteristics of both Southeast Asian and Ming-era Chinese ships.

Fra Mauro's map shows junk-like vessels with high stern and square bow plying the Indian Ocean, along with details of what apparently is the island of Madagascar and the Cape of Good Hope.

Mauro describes the ships that crossed the Indian Ocean in these terms:

The ships or junks that navigate these seas carry four or more masts, some of which can be raised or lowered, and have 40 to 60 cabins for the merchants and only one tiller. They navigate without a compass, but have an astrologer who stands on the side and with an astrolabe in hand, and gives orders to the navigator.

This does not appear to describe Zheng He's fleet or other Chinese merchant ships at the time, which did use the compass for navigation. Arab ships also began to use the compass by the 12th century at least. As noted earlier most ships of Southeast Asia did not use the compass when the Europeans arrived on the scene, but the "astrolabe" mentioned above was not commonly used either. The single tiller brings to mind the axial rudder as found on junks or hybrid ships.

Junk-like ship with four masts from Fra Mauro's map positioned west of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean. Tracing from: De Santarem, M. Visconde. Atlas Compse de Mappemondes et de Cartes Hydrographiques et Historiques, Maulde and Renou, Paris, 1895.

Prester John

Conti tells Tafur that he had personally witnessed Prester John send two missions to 'Christian princes' but had not heard whether these had met with success. The king was also said to have been making preparations for a visit or conquest of Jerusalem. These reports indicate that Conti's Prester John was involved in long-range maritime missions.

Unfortunately Conti's account gives us little information useful in locating this Prester John of the Indies. In his interviews with Poggio, he is aware of the then-existing claims of both an "Indian" and an Ethiopian Prester John. Tafur makes it clear that the Prester John of Greater India is distinct from that of Ethiopia, when he talks of the varying complexions of people in both regions.

Conti mentions a Nestorian king who lived somewhere near Cathay along with the Ethiopian king, and Poggio is said to have interviewed emissaries from the East after his discussions with Conti.

Poggio describes the eastern ambassador as coming from "Upper India" as an envoy of a Nestorian kingdom located 20 days journey from Cathay.

'Upper India' during Poggio's time meant the same as 'Greater India.' With Lower, Middle and Upper India corresponding to the West to East order and Upper India referring to the region beyond the Ganges.

We have seen during this period that the kingdom of Lusung was practicing a policy of attraction with the Ming dynasty, and at the arrival of the Portuguese they were well-dispersed throughout Southeast Asia and eager to provide navigational assistance to the newcomers.

Toscanelli, a friend of Poggio, also met with the Eastern ambassador but he confuses his kingdom with that of Marco Polo's "Great Khan," which by this time had faded into history.

Columbus in his annotated copy of Historia rerum with his own notes copies Toscanelli's letter to Martins referring to Nicolo de Conti's testimony.

Magellan, when faced with a doubtful crew near the tip of South America, told them of a chart he had seen made by Martin Behaim displaying a passage to the Pacific Ocean. Behaim also appeared to have been strongly influenced by Toscanelli as his famed Behaim Globe is nearly a copy of Toscanelli's reconstructed chart.

As Toscanelli himself was indebted to Conti (and also possibly to the Eastern ambassador), it can be said that few persons so influenced the European age of discovery as Nicolo de Conti.

Regards,Paul Kekai ManansalaSacramento

References

Larner, John. Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World, Yale University Press, 2001, p. 9.

Rubiés, Joan-Pau. Travel and Ethnology in the Renaissance: South India Through European Eyes, 1250-1625, Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 93.

Here's the poem found in the intro of volume 4 of Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan (click on pic above for more info):

Quests

Exploits grand, powerful currents of history
The search for one's origins
Desire and calling flowing deep within the blood
Serpentine and winged messengers

Forested and palmed isles in crystalline waters
A land where two holy mounts preside
calling winds from all directions
heaping up the waves from Ocean's currents

In the descent of the Sun, born at night
during the time of the great feast
In between the two great lineages
Waiting until the last minute, hiding...

The glory of the clans, the bird and serpent
back and forth along the great plain
and the long serpentine rivers
Rising and setting like the two bright orbs

Strong and resilient, a guarded heritage
A trunk mighty like a banyan
yet flexing and recovering like a willow
Deep river of knowledge and inner power

Sprawling delta split into isles by dikes
and a myriad of waterways large and small
Fish ponds and rice fields as far as one can see
A royal land of ari, dayang and pampang

From days long past, the ancestors intuited the plan
The clan constructed the superstructure and laid the wayposts
Toil and sacrifice prepared the way concealed from colonial eyes
To a new Lusung in a land known to ancient progenitors

Galleons sailing through time to steamboats
through changes on the sea and on the land
empires come and go like the morning dew
servicing the waves of our dams and sires

Switching of the guard, the southern advance
A landing on the coast of the new Gold Mountain
As in Heaven, so on Earth
Bringing the light across the seas to a new abode

After thousands of years, the turning of ages beckons
Seed to spread throughout a waiting globe
Old holy land to sleep and wait
A material cocoon to encase Sun and Moon

Mirroring the old in the new
Matching myths and landscapes, sometimes reoriented
Creating a familiar home and environment
At the same time strange and recognizable

Nexus of trade and communication networks
Mother and guardian of ships and seafarers
Route of spices, gold, metals, trade goods
Transplanted to the land of the queen's retreat

Streams of time and history converge
and diverge toward the center, new and old
cycles of conflict, hidden agendas, new alliances
A great plan without structure, spontaneous

World at war, families in flight
hiding in forest and in field, ponds
March of death for weary soldiers
Covert resistance against the red circle

Peace at last, but then, boarding the golden boat
looking for work in the amazonian isle
a clan begins its move to the east, to the world's edge
to the furthest coastlands of Prester John

New soil to host the blood
new earth to flow in the blood
Pearl of the ages moving for the first time
as before, pulling together the merchant streams

Best of humans drawn toward the magnetic mountain
New ideas flow in and out, leading the direction of thought
Migration paths intersect, denizens of the deep and air
come together to the great conference of earth's inhabitants

Arrival in the 50s, post-war, baby boom, capitalist golden age
Birthing the Cornucopia, great fertile fields
Picking the crops, odd jobs as available to send money home
A father and son working in the new land

Then son joins Air Force as the father had joined Army before
A new son arrives from the old country
Marriage near the base, near the site where it all began
A new family arises to take up the struggle

My birth at a hospital that stands now as a relic
on Thanksgiving night at dinner time
Within months off to the land of the red circle
Sister born at base converted now to Showa's park

Boarding again a plane for transpacific flight
leaving Mama-san behind to reunite with Queen Calafia
Where grandfather continues to work the land
together with uncles as the trunk and tip grows

Learning about the spirits and the stars
While a brother visits us briefly
before departing to SkyWorld to be with ancestors
Then another brother, the youngest of four siblings, arrives

Father stationed again in the ancestral land
By this time inspiring awe for its natural beauty and wonder
Imperfect start in recontact with the wild
Bite of the aswang sets the stage for the future

Going back to Cali, Cali
under the protection and guidance of the strong black one
From the South to the North with Snoopy in tow
Across Disney's land to the windy northern terminus

Learning the nature of the rock and its faithfulness
Understanding that treasures are usually hidden
the truth found just below or deep under the surface
Gaining insight in the loving warmth of the hearth

Into the 70s, the fruit of desegregation in the South
Kung fu fighting and blaxploitation
Coming of age in a mostly hostile environment
First yearnings to discover one's roots

Creeks, rivers, ponds, lakes, sea with bro and fam
Waking up to latest tunes from sister's sound system
In the snow with dogs, bunnies and birds
Nature becomes a great teacher and nurturer

Learning of the conflicts of color and race
building a body of strength and endurance
saying goodbye to the clan progenitor
Leaving through tumbleweeds and dust devils

Black dog on a plane crossing the seas
Back to the birth land in the rainy season
Memories folded and unfolded, re-lived
Severed roots replanted in volcanic soil and sand

Reconnecting with the alluvial streams and rivers
flowing from the Zambales mountains and Arayat
Going "native" and acquiring new knowledge
Hearing the voice of the Earth and Sky

Valuable clues and leads missed but not forgotten
Shadows of a hoary genealogy, a grave error
relinking with the blood and the lineages
becoming a fighter and rebel, but still without direction

Burning up the disco floor in polyester
high school graduation with Aeta queens
Instruction from the Great Feminine
returning "stateside" after soeur

Searching for family knowledge and a path
driving back and forth across rice fields and delta
following tradition and joining the military
Army boot camp and assignment to Europe

Pathfinding through German forests and mountains
Using orientation and navigation skills inherited
starting to find my causes and determination
Adventures in Paris, Florence, London and other cities

Martial arts training comes in handy
First noticed experiences with the Earth and Sky defenders
Noting dimly how the higher camp watches over things
here on the planet providing precious help at various times

Welcome to the 80s at the height of the Cold War
along comes Ronnie and Star Wars
Fulda Gap closes and a wall comes down
For each step forward, we also move back a little

Breaking free, realizing the conflict of "races"
A stop in Vegas and Hollywood thinking of the future
meandering about leads back to the university
studying politics and film, rubbing elbows with stars in LA

Back to the religion of when?
Animal guides show us paths not taken recently
how many texts were read and studied
how much energy misplaced but not completely

Tiny little Tori comes into the fold
patrolling the night with the teething pup
thinking about the direction given by grandparents
A new totemic teacher learns her calling

Leaping athletically to catch the prize
combing through the riddles of the ages
Sacramento is still an open space
Cowtown but formerly a Gold Rush hub

With sister studying college engineering
Brother heads off to Germany for Air Force stint
Adventure in the Bering Sea
combines with ethnological experience arousing curiosity

Taking a break to travel across the country by train
breaking open a book by a history master
enough to quickly gain understanding of purposeful error
connecting the dots about my own heritage and history

Pilgrimage denied setting off a new career
as person of action, messiah in my own mind
Throwing my lot into the perilous Middle East
believing and acting as if the pen is mightier

Letters as the weapons of choice
Arabian nights and East Asian unity
Taking a stand for the truth, for the cause
subversive forces start the 'civilizational war'

Blending word magic with spiritual fervor
Under the watchful eye of the Guru priestess
Winds of war and atmosphere blow fiercely, strongly
Eruption at the Axis Mundi, at Mount Pinatubu

Poetry and prose exploring the depths of devotion
Diving into the grand diversity of global culture
Learning, understanding the complex web
of history, politics, economy and spirituality

In the 50s, the blood comes to the District of Calafia
Newborn plant roots during the 60s Revolution
Coming of age for the young ones in Disco 70s
Learning and experience during the 80s transition

Timeline moves into the 90s age of Internet and Millennium
Ancient messengers move through the air
Great Equalizer brings power to the people
Mutia establishes the new center of commerce and messaging

Birth of the new generation in this line
First daughter and son of the brother
By this time, most of both bilateral clans
relocated to the new Golden State

Some of the old generation depart, some too soon
Toti keeps watch of the sky and the stars
Long hours in the caves of libraries and archives
Searching for details of the "rest of the story"

Sila, the feline hero, survivor of multiple ordeals
shows strength and opens the way
providing protection and ointment during times of woes
Two friends finding the path for the household

As one reclaims the past, the pun and the sepu
sailing through the annals of ancient mariners
riding the waves of the sea, of Kekai
To know where you're going, know where you came from

At the confluence of two rivers, floodplain of the Sierra
Holy Mount Shasta to the North, Mazama further still
In the great delta, the nation's Cornucopia
connecting to the bay and ocean, to the ports

Sacramento sets the rule and the tariff
dual epicenters to the west and south
sending out messages, hub of communication
leading in trade, bringing the nations together

Camp of Sky, Earth and Spirit stationed above and below
Leviathan visits near the confluence, twice
Sea lions, turtles make pilgrimages
Multitudes of birds come seasonally to the convergence

A new Suvarnadvipa with its own dual mountains
Llao and Skell in the valley of the sacred meal
Animal apus gather as well for exchange
of spirit and deeds and remembrance

Taking a stand on history and culture
Refuting the Eurocentric establishment
tackling the intricacies of linguistics, archaeology and more
traveling to relevant sites throughout the globe

"Holy Land," Jambudvipa, Himalayas and original "Eden"
picking up clues here and there from nooks and crannies
Thunder snow near Jerusalem and a Damascus road moment
Clarity now and an opportunity to move forward in truth

Gazing at Sun, Moon, planets and stars
watching for signs, marks and wonders
Speaking about the relevance of nothingness
Back once again to the whitened Indung Tibuan

From the roots up through the trunk, through time
streaming through the branches to leaves in prime
ancient blood lineages flow to the storied tip
legends and prophesies unlocked from the golden crypt

Memories and memes through tributaries flow
into the Great River's currents' tow
Pieces of the puzzle reassemble in the fight
restoring hidden treasures to the light

Ancestors and elders build the grand structure
Mazama for Pinatubo, Shasta for Arayat
New land split by gold dust rivers
New power center for the line of the Great Pearl

Running together with the not-so-young Lions
Finally earning a political journalistic credential
Playing the herald like a Pinoy Eagle
Creating my own grand virtual universe

Learning the code and the prognostication
Dancing like its 1999 at the new millennium's birth
Sister and husband find energy alternatives
bringing opportunities for the people of APU

A new century and scholar learns the business trade
Digital clocks survive and apocalypse fears fade
Time and age march on and bring reality back
That in our worldly lives, struggle we can never lack

Justice, liberty, freedom, equity are not free
Without engagement, success, you shall not see
As a family and friends learn to participate
We guide the politics, rely less on fate

Newborn nephew arrives too soon
a fighter, though, he meets the challenge
through the intercessors comes a boon
to family feeling the reaper's singe

Old, grizzled Jupiter guide
Yellow priestess on who I relied
Served you in your fading days
Apung Sila before you led the way

Farewell, way openers as you pass to the light
We remember you as we continue through the night
Days of ending come and new one arrives
A guiding star afresh to light up our lives

Apung Toti, Apung Sila instruct the pup
Siblings raise the banner as Sun comes up
Herald the time that ancients knew
When gold for iron comes anew

Apung Guintu sailed the sea
Apung Iru seeded the land
Uncles and aunts expanded the tree
Guided and hidden by celestial hand

The foe and oppressor over time crept
up until the weary, lowered old guard slept
Traditions kept deep within the heart
Chosen clan members keeping each part

Trunk and tip left withered and dry
time flows and truth keepers sigh
But awaited reviving time draws near
Guardians stand strong and free from fear

Forced silence reigns for many centuries
Biblical precepts and related prophecies
give way to doctrines of master "race"
Organized confusion instead of facts

Then suddenly a booming voice
pent-up secrets pour out like a flood
not by accident but by design
according to intricacies of chosen time

Under the direction of the Guiding Star
a journal to trace the steps of the great clan
lineage to uncover the lineage of old
Mountain Spirit born again for expected epoch

Founded on an infamous anniversary
Initiated for those with knowledge cursory
Winding timeline with innumerable nodes
Ancient arcane secrets and cryptic codes

Just weeks before tribulation's dawn
Lord of the Sea reigning strong
Song of the ancestors to be sung
Riding back on the waves to the highest rung

Malyari, Sinukuan, Tala, Manalastas
Maya, Mingan, heroes of the past
Alive again today in letter and song
Pun and sepu revived and growing strong

Dog man blogs all the night long
looking to right the history wronged
Belief in his struggle forged in the fire
Golden treasures brought out from under the mire

Knowledge flowed to cetacean pilgrimage site
answers found that seemed nowhere in sight
doubts allayed by songs of the spirit
problems solved by what seemed like kismet

Ancient floods receded long ago
but made their mark by the sign of their flow
riddles within riddles seemed like too much to fight
but the answer lied in Tashi's canine might

Dual mysteries on two different tracks
that with time and effort eventually converge
A great house with many floors and rooms
a giant net with innumerable nodes

Predecessors moving knowingly and unknowingly
working through tradition and hunch and intuition
and sometimes with purpose and design
creating the frame, rigging the protective hull

Messages in a mostly forgotten language
impulses from deep within the soul and spirit
enquiries to the higher board
treasured knowledge from shadowy informants

Stories of genealogies chanted
memorized line by line from elder to younger
Enigmas and clues from Baluga and Igorot
Words, names and stories of history's mystery

Great river of bloodlines from Axis Mundi's land
tributaries from Ta-Seti, Kemet and other distant places
merging into a non-coincidental stream
merging story and song with modern reality

Animal family and spirit guides
in front and back leading the way
knowledge comes from past, present and future
Canine, feline, aviary, marine and other mentors

Deep into the causes in the New Millennium
living for purpose rather than simple pleasure
family moves toward planetary care
with the High Sun as the great sustainer

Using the Net to access easily once distant works
Work that could take months and years down to hours
Messaging through multiple nodes within six steps near
Gatekeepers vanquished, barriers smashed, knowledge wins

Migrations past and present, seeing the connections
a tale of two camps that once united as one
philosophical animism and dual contradictions
Seeing Time as Lord and past, present and future as one

Within Columbia's borders, the dark enters the white
Hope and change and proclamation: "Yes, we can"
Stories of old unfold interwoven with breaking events
Moving in concert with land and atmosphere

Beautiful Venus, Aphrodite delivers the foes
a broken bridge and "father" of woes
Planet's travails push waves to the border
Public mind accepts need for new global order

Orbital home warming, a story from the past
The Great Scorching presaged our current crisis
Great cycles rewind and reveal the hidden knowledge
Once again we see the great travail, the closing of the age

Great Sun brings suddenly a great material success
Families benefit from the new economic confluence
Most precious things in life, though, still ghost-like
learning the lesson of the Earth's great struggle

Bayani, satria, defenders of Mutia's way
celebrating the hard return of the Goddess
the renovation of the regal trunk and tip
Victory but still more struggle left to go

Great stellar clock that guides the times
Camp of Sky and Earth between the lines
Destiny plays its role and karma too
Each action and reaction starts anew

Last of the Ariyang Mutia out of the blue
Dragon and Bird Clan lives but with purpose new
Pinatubo, Arayat set the new phase
New Mounts Regent until final last days

Apung Tala brings the tale to close
From the rest of Toti, the new arose
Asu Lineage completes the quest
But for future, new deeds until the rest.